Orlando

I am in a waiting room of sorts right now. Actually, it is a very nice and welcoming living room, and one of my children is meeting with a tutor at a kitchen table.  While I wait, I read a bit and answer study questions. Like every other American, I have spent the last 24 hours trying to process a horrific terrorist attack. At times like this, I have to press pause on checking social media. I cannot bear the opinions that come while I am still processing the hurt.

I awoke yesterday to a busy day and a vague news report about 20 people being killed in an Orlando nightclub. I was out of church before learning that casualty number had more than doubled. I spent an uneasy morning in worship. No public place seems safe. I came home to the last minutes details that go into celebrating a birthday. Yet, I knew that many moms were looking for answers, dying to turn back time, and for them, the idea that life goes on for the rest of us is appalling. "Stop all the clocks. Stop the dog from barking," The poet  W.H. Auden stated in a poem that describes grief very well.

This came after facing the hard reality that the world is cruel.  I watched a 48 Hours episode on Saturday night that scared me.  We've all seen the outcry over the Brock Turner case, and in that 48 Hours episode, there were no heroic Swedes stepping in to save young women from a predator who abused them and then took their lives. No one stepped in even when witnesses confirmed that they knew this guy was up to no good.  We mind our own business too much.  I can't point the finger.  I likely would have been guilty too.  I have had hard conversations with my kids - reminding them that nobody can be proud of anything they did while drunk and that mere minutes of bad judgement or criminal behavior can ruin multiple lives.  I have worried over my daughter heading to a big college campus next year.

Even in the horror though, life does continue, and you can't stop a child's party for something that happened many miles away to strangers.  So we grieve with and for the hurting victims; for the pain that won't end; for the PTSD that will haunt them; for the officers and chaplains who have seen the real horror and then had to go and tell moms, dads, friends, and siblings that the one they loved won't be coming home.  We grieve for those who continue to wait and look for the ones they love while knowing the truth deep within themselves. We remember.  There is a time to grieve, so we grieve.

We go on with life, with the celebration, because we are Christians and Americans.  To identify with both is to identify with bravery and freedom.  In the end God wins, and we cling to that sure thing even as hope dims.

In my opinion nobody has handled this painful attack on our nation better than Dr. Russel Moore.  You can find his words here:

http://www.russellmoore.com/2016/06/12/orlando-can-still-weep-together/